Supermarket war sparks off new ad campaign

Woolworths
has reinvented its 25-year-old “fresh food people" slogan in a new advertising campaign aimed at restoring customer trust and regaining sales momentum lost to
Coles
.

The campaign was launched last night after a five-month review of the retailer’s $120 million a year supermarket advertising account, which was initiated after months of sluggish sales growth.

Woolworths and its new creative advertising agency, Droga5, have added an Australian reference to the “fresh food people" tagline to emphasise the retailer’s local heritage and its support for local rather than imported products.

But the jingle that became etched into the memory of a generation of Australians has been replaced with a 1950s song – Frankie Carle’s Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, which was once used by Walmart– that Woolworths believes reflects the rhythm of its business.

“Every single day we open our stores, we bake fresh bread, we have fresh meat, every single day we have a chance to serve our customers better and every month of the year we can bring more innovation and better products of the season – the song fits very well with what we do," said Woolworths director of supermarkets, Tjeerd Jegen.

Citigroup analyst Craig Woolford said the new campaign represented incremental change, reflecting Woolworths’ conservative culture and was unlikely to provide a step-change in sales momentum.

Woolworths’ same-store sales growth has lagged behind that of Coles for 11 consecutive quarters and Woolworths’ advertising over the past two years has been described as reactive and inconsistent.

However, Mr Jegen said the new fully-integrated campaign, which will cover print, radio, outdoor, catalogue and digital marketing, was the start of a journey.

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“It’s not something that’s a one-off," Mr Jegen told The Australian Financial Review.

“It might feel subtle, but I’ll be very pleased if you see it as a subtle change because that means we’ve done the right thing in staying close to our heritage and to who we are," he said.

A series of eight ads plus compilations, produced over the past few weeks, tell the stories of Woolworths’ suppliers and employees as Australian-made products find their way from the paddock to the plate.

Woolworths will also hold fresh food fairs in every supermarket over the next three weekends, offering product sampling, cook-offs and family activities such as face painting.

“They’ve clearly decided to hold onto the fresh food people thing rather than walk away from it after a pretty concerted effort by Coles in recent months to grab some of that territory," said Wayde Bull, planning director at Principals.

“It sounds as if what they’ve decided to do is breathe new life into it by executing fresh food people in a different way rather than changing what they’re trying to say," said Mr Bull.

“To have walked away from it at this point would have been a bit of a victory for Coles."

Mr Jegen said the main objectives of the new campaign were to generate customer trust and loyalty and encourage higher sales of fresh food.

“If you trust someone you become an advocate and are more loyal and that translates to higher frequency of purchase and more sales," he said.

He said the new campaign, the largest for many years, represented a significant investment for Woolworths. Industry sources said the retailer would spend $4 million over the next four to six weeks on TV and another $1 million on print and radio.

“It’s a multi-million dollar investment but the good thing is we’ll stick with this for quite a while and I think we can leverage our production costs quite a bit," Mr Jegen said.

“Having a clear message on who we are, Australia’s fresh food people, and having a clear message on value will help us leverage the spend much more effectively," he said.

“The most important thing is this is our own race, this is our own plan, and whatever our competitors will do is not much of a concern for us."